Pets are the best. They always know when we’re feeling sad or sick and know how to show us that they’re worrying about us. Last night – another rough one – our male kitty Sonic, the more obviously affectionate one of our two cats (though Mystic is sweet too in her own quirky way), stayed close by me most of the night. I know because I was up most of the night. Because I had started my asthma treatment yesterday, I wasn’t choking like before but was still coughing a lot, so I barely slept and was keeping David awake. Sonic lay curled up at my feet seemingly oblivious to my hacking. At one point in the night, I heard a cough followed by a gagging sound coming from Theo’s room. Both David and I shot out of bed and rushed to Theo’s room to find him sitting up in bed coughing and struggling with some phlegm that he’d coughed up. Though he was gagging a bit, he managed to get it out without even waking up (his eyes were open but he apparently has no memory of this episode) and then lay back down and went back to sleep moaning softly to himself. I stayed with him on the bed worried that he might cough and choke again but he soon seemed to be sleeping peacefully. Nevertheless, I decided that since I couldn’t sleep anyway, I’d sit guard in Theo’s room just in case he had another difficult cough. So I made myself a comfy seat out of Theo’s bean bag with a cushion supporting my head and sat almost upright with a light comforter as a cover. As soon as I was set up in my guard post, Sonic pattered into the room, found my odd bed and curled himself up into a ball on the comforter right at my feet again. It was as if he had decided to lie guard over me too. Having him there as company made it almost pleasant to spend the rest of the night half-sleeping, half waking in Theo’s room, coughing a bit less in that position, thus also giving David a chance to get some decent sleep.

Today, I wasn’t able to accomplish much, but before I became really ill, I had set aside up some cat blankets, a bed and a basket that our cats seem to have rejected to give away to someone. David, had taken over from Sonic during the day and was on guard at my side for most of the day again while Theo was at school. I called on him again to take them to the Vet’s office near our home and leave them outside the office with a sign that read “Free Pet Bedding.” Hopefully they will make a comfy little bed for someone else’s sweet, loyal guard pet.